Game apparatus



J. H. NOLAN. GAME APPARATUS.

(No Model.)

No. 458,405. Patented Aug. 25, L891.

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UNiTnn STATES ATENT FFICE.

JOHN H. NOLAN, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

GAME APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 458,405, dated August 25, 1891. Application filed June 12, 1890. Serial 'No. 355,141- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be itknown that I, JOHN H. NOLAN, of Boston, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Game Apparatus, of which the following description,

in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention relates to a game apparatus that may be used either indoors or outdoors.

The apparatus comprises a number of rings that are thrown by the players, who employ rods or rapiers for throwing the rings, and a number of standards, preferably having distinguishing marks that can be set in definite position with relation to one another, and constitute goals, and are provided with one or more receiving projections or arms for the rings, it being the object of the players to throw the rings from one goal to the next in such manner that they will be caught upon the receiving-arms of the standards toward which they are thrown. When the standards are provided with more than one receiving arm, they may have different values, depending upon the skill required to cause the ring The game may be played by an indefinite number of persons, who may, if desired, be divided into sides or parties, and the rings are provided with distinguishing marks or colors, so that each may be identified with the player to whom it belongs.

The invention consists in game apparatus constructed and arranged substantially as I will proceed now more particularly to set forth and finally claim.

Figure 1 is a diagram view representing the arrangement of the several goals or standards; Fig. 2, a perspective view of one of the standards; and Fig. 3 a side elevation of one of the rings and the rapiers for throwing the same, showing the position in which the rapiers may be held when throwing the ring.

The apparatus comprises a number of standards or uprights a, each provided with one or more receiving-arms 1) b there being, preferably, five of said standards, each provided with two receiving-arms, as shown. Four of the standards may be set up at the corners of a diamond, as shown in Fig. 1, and

the fifth standard may be placed within the diamond on one of the diagonals, and is called the home station or goal.

The apparatus also comprises a number of rings 0, (see Fig. 3,) which may be a foot or more in diameter, and are painted or covered with colored bands to distinguish them from one another. Preferably each ringis marked with two bands passing spirallyaround it, one of said bands being of the same color on a number of rings, so as to indicate the side or party to which the ring belongs, while the other band is of a different color on the several rings belonging to a set, so as to identify the rings with the individual players. For example, one of the bands may be white on one set of rings and the corresponding band black on the other set of rings, while the other I hand of each set, may be of the primary colors, red, orange, yellow, 850.

Each player is provided with two propelling rods or rapiers d, which may be passed through the ring, as shown in Fig. 3, and used to propel the same, the rapier held in one hand giving the main impulse by which the ring is propelled, while that held in the other hand serves to steady and guide the same as it is thrown toward the next goal. The standards are preferably set, in the arrangement shown in Fig. 1, from fifteen to thirty feet apart, and the players begin at the home-station or standard within the diamond and throw toward the standard in front of that, and then proceed in regular order from one standard to the next around the diamond, preferably advancing from a given standard or goal after they have succeeded in lodging the ring upon it.

The game may be played and the score counted in various ways, which may be governed by predetermined rules. The arms I) b are preferably inserted in sockets in the standards a, from which they are movable for convenience in packing, and the said standards a may be inserted in a suit-able socket or base (1?, which may be formed, as shown in Fig. 2, to stand upon the floor when the apparatus is used indoors, or may be of suitable form to be permanently fixed in the ground when the game is to be used outdoors, or the standards may be driven directly into the ground.

and being arranged in definite relation one to the other to form a field for players, and a corresponding series of rings also having distinguishing marks, and rapiers for throwing said rings toward and, if possible, upon one or the other of said arms and in progression around the field, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN H. NOLAN.

Witnesses:

J os. P. LIVERMORE, JAs. J. MALoNEY. 

